I guess old af-newbie will never understand things like this, even if he is not a woman.
Interesting choice of scripture there.
af-newbie has stated he was deeply influenced by the overt and gross corruption he witnessed peddled by a nominally religious leader in his youth. Witnessing corruption and abuse he rejects religion prima facie.
This is understandable and an example of the tremendous harm that can results from violating the commandment of taking the name of God in vain aka committing evil in the name of God. Hypocrisy is incredibly destructive.
I once wandered away from Christianity but I never had anything like that kind of hurdle to overcome while finding my way back. The religious people I interacted with in my youth were to the best of my knowledge genuine and acting with goodwill.
My path back started with the realization of the practical necessity of Christianity. That sparked a later deeper introspection into the fundamentals.
The decline of Christianity is seriously damaging society, atheists acknowledge
https://thebl.com/us-news/the-decline-of-christianity-is-seriously-damaging-society-atheists-acknowledge.html
How the West was won by Christianity
https://www.mercatornet.com/features/view/how-the-west-was-won-by-christianity/23109
Religion is a two-edged sword. On one hand, it can stop people from committing heinous crimes and on the other, it facilitates, makes it easy to justify other heinous crimes.
Corruption and structural abuse in all of the major religions is just one aspect that I could not bear.
Supernatural claims, scientific nonsense, outright contradictions, rejection of any progressive thought, the subjective, cultural context in the "holy" scriptures is something I could not accept as divine.
Cell death is a non-reversible process. When your DNA and RNA fragments, there is nothing that would reassemble them and rebuild each and every cell in your body to make you alive again.
A cracker and wine during your Sunday's mass cannot possibly turn into human flesh and blood. That is not chemically possible.
The universe was started most likely out of nothing via quantum fluctuations, the initial inflation was a result of non-symmetry in the matter-antimatter formation and destruction, and we are the result of it.
Scientific ignorance of religious people is appalling. Their schizophrenic, hypocritic rejection of science and acceptance of technology is
all the proof you need to know that people running this con job are ruthless, evil psychopaths who will do anything and say anything to separate fools from their money.
Any company that would offer a non-existing product, charge you in advance and would promise that the product works after you die would end up in court for fraud.
The vast majority of the human population remains ignorant so I am afraid religions will be a necessary evil for few more generations to come.
The main function of religion is to instill fear, establish control and provide answers to ignorant people and stray them from killing each other.